Mass Effect ditches the Milky Way for a galaxy far, far away.
Cast your mind back to 2012's Mass Effect 3. Whichever ending you picked, the original Mass Effect trilogy crashed to a halt as Commander Shepard's story came to a pretty clear end. But that was five years ago. As they say, the show, or, in Mass Effect's case, the video game franchise, must go on. And so, what to do - and where to go - for the fourth Mass Effect?
To Andromeda - and beyond!
Developer BioWare's idea for continuing its much-loved sci-fi role-playing shooter series is to ditch the Milky Way entirely, thus neatly sidestepping any potential continuity issues caused by what's gone before. Instead, Andromeda is, as you'd expect from the name of the game, set in an entirely new galaxy, and 600 years after the events of Mass Effect 3. You couldn't distance yourself further from Shepard and the Normandy.
Here's the setup: at some point during the events of Mass Effect 2, the player character - the male or female child of N7 special forces soldier Alec Ryder - begins a cryosleep-fuelled intergalactic journey from the Milky Way to Andromeda. You are a Pathfinder. Your job: to discover new planets for humans to colonise.
Mass Effect's wonderful Galaxy Map returns, but this time you'll find yourself setting down on much bigger, more detailed planets
As you'd expect, this setup means Mass Effect can introduce new characters, new alien races and a new starship, called the Tempest. But there's still a focus on gathering a party of supporting characters, each of whom you can interact with and potentially romance. As for your squad, expect to party up with a female turian, a krogan called Drack, an asari called Peebee and humans Liam and Cora. Expect more party members to present themselves as you play the game.
That's the story. As for the gameplay, Andromeda will feel instantly familiar to fans of the series. Mass Effect's famous dialogue wheel is present and correct, as is the third-person combat, which fuses the firing of futuristic weapons with the casting of space magic powers. But there are a few new ideas that should spice things up a bit.
Choose your own Pathfinder
Andromeda ditches the fixed character class of previous games for a new system that lets you switch classes on the fly - even during combat. Points assigned to each skill can be reallocated whenever you want, making for a more flexible and varied playthrough. The idea is players are free to experiment with different playstyles, so they don't have to put in multiple playthroughs to try out each character class.
The reaction to this new system has been mixed, with some fans looking forward to the experimentation on offer, others lamenting the loss of the focus that comes from being locked into a character archetype. Whatever your opinion, it's worth remembering that your Ryder can dig as deeply into a particular playstyle as you want. You don't have to reallocate skill points if you don't fancy it.
Elsewhere, Andromeda has an open world approach to its structure similar to that of the first Mass Effect game. Mass Effect's wonderful Galaxy Map returns, but this time you'll find yourself setting down on much bigger, more detailed planets than those seen in Mass Effect 2 and 3. BioWare has said it's focused on creating a credible open world for Andromeda. You'll spend a lot of time on the Tempest, of course, talking to your crew and upgrading your ship capabilities. But you'll spend even more time exploring the many planets you can land on, each a mini open world of its own. Supporting planetary landing is a new on the ground vehicle called the Nomad. This six-wheeled buggy is more responsive and less frustrating to use than the Mako, BioWare has said. Phew!
I'm Ryder, and this is my favourite store on the Nexus
And don't worry about the loss of the Citadel, either. Andromeda's equivalent, called the Nexus, acts similarly to the original Mass Effect space station. Lore wise, the Nexus accompanied the four Ark ships on the journey to Andromeda, carrying its own contingent of officials, engineers, traders and security personnel. So, by the time Mass Effect Andromeda begins, the Nexus is a fully-functional space station, just as the Citadel was. It includes everything from a Milky Way archive to the Vortex Lounge, where patrons can unwind and dance.
Andromeda has certainly had enough time in development for BioWare to nail its design, and so we couldn't be more excited for the game. Luckily it turns out we don't have long to wait, since Bioware revealed the release date: 23/03/2017.
